Hollywood Man Tried For Ex-girlfriend`s Death

Rodney Talbert, a Hollywood man, stood trial Wednesday in Broward Circuit Court for his second alleged crime of the heart.

Talbert, convicted more than a year ago of beating up a man whom he found in bed with his girlfriend, is now on trial on charges of killing the young woman about two months later.

Talbert, 27, is accused of first-degree murder in the deaths of his former girlfriend, Donna Michelle Fisher, 17, and her grandmother, Evelyn Bennett, on June 3, 1984. The women were found asphyxiated in a bed in Bennett`s downtown Hollywood apartment.

The crime was committed while Talbert was out on bond for the attempted murder of Scott Starling, which occurred on March 19, 1984. Talbert smacked Starling in the head several times with a metal weightlifting bar after finding Starling in bed with Fisher.

Talbert was convicted in October of that year of aggravated battery for the attack on Starling. He has been in the Broward County Jail since his bond for the attack on Starling was revoked a week after the murders.

Broward Assistant Attorney John Coyle contended in court Wednesday that Talbert is the only logical suspect in the killing of the two women.

But defense attorney Charles Vaughn, who also defended Talbert in his earlier case, said other people had motives to kill Fisher and that there is no witness linking Talbert to the crime.

Broward Circuit Judge Mark Speiser has ruled that the prosecution can introduce witnesses and evidence about Talbert`s earlier attack on Starling as a way to perhaps establish a motive for the second crime.

Coyle called Starling to the stand and he described how Talbert cracked him over the head with the bar while Fisher looked on helplessly. Starling spent three weeks in the hospital with head injuries.